Read the Water Primer thread and have my water report. Feedback on plans requested.

[BruceH]

Hi,

I read the first part of the water chemistry primer thread and will follow the recommendations made by AJ with one exception. My water is mostly soft but it has more alkalinity than the profile he based his basic additions on.

If I understand correctly I can add more acidulated malt to counter the higher alkalinity and target a ph of 5.3. Am I misunderstanding the relationship between ph acid vs alkaline and the term alkalinity?

Do I have this correct or is diluting with distilled or RO water the only way to reduce alkalinity?

This is the water report:

Thanks,
Bruce

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Acid malt will reduce alkalinity. You can't however know how much acid malt addition will be required to achieve the target mash pH until you understand the characteristics of the overall grist for any given recipe.

 

[BruceH]

Acid malt will reduce alkalinity. You can't however know how much acid malt addition will be required to achieve the target mash pH until you understand the characteristics of the overall grist for any given recipe.

Thank you! I've been playing with a water calculator that takes grist into account.

I'm trying to take this one step at a time. I've read so many new things about water in the last few days that my head started to hurt so I thought I'd ask the question just to be sure.

I never would of thought that beer brewing would include so much information.

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

Thank you! I've been playing with a water calculator that takes grist into account.

I'm trying to take this one step at a time. I've read so many new things about water in the last few days that my head started to hurt so I thought I'd ask the question just to be sure.

You can dilute your water with a percentage of low alkalinity water such as distilled or reverse osmosis water. After selecting your grains you may or may not need to add acid malt. A full featured beer recipe designer like ezRecipe Design helps you decide.